(Eric Flesch) writes:

I trust someone here has noticed this week's new abstract at
http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0605135 which treats exactly this
problem and finds very troubling (their words) foreground systematic
effects, apparently related to the plane of the solar system.

The Copi et al paper you refer to considers the low-l components of
the CMB (i.e. quadrupole, octupole), which correspond to large-scale
spatial fluctuations.

Smid's claims refer to the high-l components of the spectrum, which
Copi does not consider. Thus, Copi et al are not really considering
"exactly this problem."

CM